LIP SERVICE

Ken Lipshez, a member of the CT High School Coaches Hall of Fame, has been covering local sports in central Connecticut since 1992. He is also past president and treasurer of the CT Sports Writers' Alliance, which has staged the prestigious Gold Key Dinner annually since 1939 (see ctsportswriters.org). Ken worked both as an administrator (1981-88) and a beat reporter for Eastern League baseball (1996-2010). Aside from sports, his passions include American history, classic movies (pre-1970), the Grateful Dead and 1960s TV shows, particularly westerns.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

HARRIS LOWERS THE BOOM ON HIGHER SEED

(Berlin Citizen exclusive)

VERNON – The clouds were gathering
in the first inning.

The Berlin High softball team used
its patented small-ball style of offense to load the bases with no outs, but
Rockville’s All-State pitcher Kaitlyn Lajoie struck out the third and fourth
hitters in the Redcoats order.

Early momentum, so vital in a game
where runs would almost surely be at a premium, was hanging in the balance.
Exactly which way the game would turn rested with the next hitter, pitcher
Makayla Harris.

Harris consummated a long at-bat
with a two-run double to left and went on to pitch a gem in a 3-0 whitewash of
the defending Class L champion and third-seeded Rams in a quarterfinal clash
May 31 in the stifling heat at Rockville High School.

The memory of last year’s
tournament ouster was thick in the air.

The sixth-seeded Redcoats were one
pitch away from securing a second-round win at Brookfield 364 days earlier, but
wound up losing 3-2 in eight innings. Berlin coach Jason Pires analyzed the
game ad nauseam and took full
responsibility. Harris, just a sophomore at the time, gained the kind of
experience that nothing but playing the game can teach.

“I’d be lying if I said last year
didn’t cross my mind when the bottom of the seventh started,” Pires said.
“We’re not that team. I knew it wouldn’t happen again. I knew we were winning
this game when it got to the seventh.”

Lajoie and Harris waged a memorable
battle as opposing pitchers. Each gave up only three hits. Neither issued any
walks. Lajoie struck out 10 and Harris countered with nine. The first inning
at-bat was a microcosm of their personal battle.

Brittany Sullivan began the game by
beating out a bunt. Megan Wicander tapped back to the mound but with the first
baseman charging, the bag was left uncovered. Courtney Silvia slapped a
grounder toward the hole. Third baseman Megan Gardiner made a diving stop, but
Sullivan beat the throw to shortstop Emily Burg covering.

“We knew their game plan,”
Rockville coach Frank Levick said. “We knew that first inning they were going
to bunt the first four or five batters. Kids just didn’t cover the bags.

Two outs later, the burden of
producing runs was on Harris.

In the midst of a 10-pitch at-bat,
she rifled a liner outside the bag at third and it struck Sullivan in foul
territory. Harris got a chance to breathe as the trainer tended to Sullivan.
Emily Ference came on to pinch-run.

When a Lajoie delivery bounced to
the backstop, Ference boldly dashed home with the first run.

“Put her name out there front and
center,” Pires said. “Emily Ference doesn’t play much. She was a jayvee player
a lot of the year. She came in in the hugest spot and that was an enormous
thing she did taking off on that. We made them make the play and that was what
we preached.

“I can’t be yelling at you to go or
not go. You’ve got to make the decision and it’s got to be immediate and she
got in.”

Harris ripped a double to left
scoring the game’s final runs.

“I took a big breath and I was
ready,” she said. “I had time to settle down [after the line drive struck
Sullivan]. The team would have been a little more rattled if [the productive
at-bat] hadn’t happened, but I’m sure we would have gotten pumped up in the
end.”

As Pires said, Harris was the rest
of the story.

A two-out error and a single by
Stephanie Kurowski put runners at the corners for Rockville (20-2) in the
second but Harris retired the side on a comebacker. Rockville managed an
infield hit in the third and a single to center by Michelle Correia in the
fourth but neither made it to second base.

Harris retired the final nine hitters.

“Makayla is not overpowering but no
one hits spots like Makayla,” Pires said. “They’re not the first team that’s
been frustrated by her. They think they’re going to smack her all over the
place. They don’t and they don’t know why.

“It’s not fast but every pitch
moves. Nothing is where they think it’s going to be. She throws three pitches
and she throws them all well.”

Sullivan returned to the game after
sustaining the ankle and was none the worse for wear.

Wicander made a running catch of a
line drive by Rockville cleanup hitter Courtney Oliva leading off the fourth
inning among her three putouts. Third baseman Kaitlyn Guild had two assists and
a putout. Harris fielded her position flawlessly with two assists, as did first
baseman Kat Burek with six putouts.

The Redcoats (20-3) advance to the
semifinals to meet undefeated, second-seeded Masuk. Site and time were
unavailable at press time.